SORRY BUT I’M HARPING ON THIS SUBJECT

SORRY BUT I’M HARPING ON THIS SUBJECT

(New York Times, Asbury Park (New Jersey) Press, Laura Gottesdiener)

(St. Louis Post-Dispatch, David Dixon, Amador Ledger, Cecilia Rasmussen)

(Survivors Club, Huffington Post, Chicago Sun Times, Frazer Chronicle)

 

I get het-up whenever I read or hear about another childhood shooting death in our country…..no matter the 360 some million people, the act, the accident, or the mass shootings that are going on today throughout the United States are just wrong. Incidents of shootings are in somebody’s newspaper every single day of the week. They usually don’t make national headlines and that in and of it is a crime, this fact breeds ignorance, and really how much a problem child shootings really are.

 

A typical Chicago, Illinois week-end; Four men are dead among the 26 shot throughout Chicago since Friday evening, capping off a violent week-end. A hot week-end pushed the number of dead and wounded, as shootings happened morning, noon and night.

 

Sounds like a demilitarized zone…..doesn’t it, you know…..where there aren’t any patrol cops for the civilian population to turn to. Is it any wonder that the gangs of Chicago have taken over large parts of the city? Gun advocates don’t have a chance with these street punks, no matter which side of the aisle you’re on, more guns, or no guns!

 

Some kid each and every day in the United States shoots, (by accident) a friend, school-mate, or somebody who is simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. And we’re not talking about kids who are 10, 11, or 12 years old. No way, these kids can be as young as 3, or 4 years old. The pick up, or find Dad’s pistol…..and don’t even think, they point it and pull the trigger.

 

According to the New York Times, (there is an almost magnetic attraction for firearms among boys, in all but a handful of shooting instances, the shooter was male.) Time and again, boys could not resist handling a gun, disregarding repeated warnings by adults, and sometimes their own sense that they were doing something wrong.

 

You get all sorts of conflicting reporting on gun deaths in the U.S. whether accidental, random acts of terrorisms, gang related, or just some crazy out for a sickly good time. In fact getting correct information nation-wide is really a tough job. People seem to not want to be aware of the actual figures, and then there’s of course the National Rifle Association and their gobble de gook of crap that many times is so far from main-stream thinking that some wonder where their home office is…..Mars?  

 

Accidental shooting deaths are hard to track, accidental child shooting deaths are by far the hardest, usually because the details seem to be so gruesome, and heart rending. However for people to ignore such incidents and statistics are really nothing more than irresponsible. It’s kind of like a city official in any-town American saying something like…..”that could never happen in our town.” Well, Boo Hoo, it does happen and way too often, it’s time we all sat up and take a long look at where we’re at as a nation.

 

SADLY THIS IS NOT A PROBLEM JUST OVER THE PAST HUNDRED YEARS

On July 26, 1764, four Delaware (Lenape) American Indian warriors entered a settler’s log schoolhouse in the Province of Pennsylvania in what is now Franklin County. Inside was schoolmaster Enoch Brown, and a number of young school students. Brown pleaded with the warriors’ to spear the children before he was shot and scalped, the Indians then tomahawked and scalped the nine children in the schoolhouse…..however two survived. In addition to the massacre, the Delaware Indians took four hostages.

 

Beginning in the 1850’s and beyond, there has been mention of mass shootings, rape, pillage perpetrated by Indians, crazy men, and the occasional school student. However after 1900, American’s seemed to kind of refine the art of mass killings. Between 1900 and 1909 there were 26 reported mass murders that claimed the lives of 134 men, women, children and babies.

 

During the first decade of the 21^st century there were 40 individual incidents involving 82 deaths and the wounding of 94. Clearly we aren’t getting better; check the Navy Yard, or the Newtown murders.  We’re becoming more blood-thirsty, and to boot, as a species, we raise little if any resistance to these shameful acts and, in fact, try and rationalize them.  

 

The United States has a whole bunch of mean streets, places you simply do not use at night…..and in some cases in the larger cities, you don’t use them at all, no matter the time of day. However people continue to put up with this form of domestic terrorism brought about by American citizens. These people that are killing people here in America are little more than street punks, drug dealers, and pimps.

 

AND THEN YOU’VE GOT THIS MENTALITY

Of course everybody is entitled to his/her own opinion, but when your opinion resembles coming from what you sit on (your butt) maybe your platform should be taken away. I’m talking about the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and an article by a F.A. Ruecker. It is obvious that this guy likes guns, is a gun advocate, and might even sleep with his gun.

 

Whenever people get shot to death, whether in a group, or single, and for whatever reason, justified or otherwise, one thing holds true…..whoever got shot in a vital place is…..DEAD…DEAD…DEAD, there’s no sugar-coating the incident, somebody is dead.

 

This F.A. Ruecker joker wrote about some biker ruffling the feathers of some senior citizen, and in return getting shot four different times in his upper torso. Through some sort of miraculous intervention the biker lives and is now in the process of suing the old guy. Here’s the deal, the biker wacked the old guy (he’s 65) in the jaw and the old guy proceeded to produce a pistol and opened fire. Was it justified…..absolutely, but it’s not really a very good example of why people need guns to protect themselves.

 

The biker involved was most probably a recognizable individual and had some sort of rap sheet, (people don’t usually go up to complete strangers and give um a shot in the jaw). The better part of valor here would have been for the geezer to call the cops…..and let them do their job.

 

Killing somebody over a traffic dispute is really the way for whoever lives to become close personal friends with Big Willie Wonder in the slam…..it’s where foot-longs are free every day. This incident is really a hard call, but probably one that could have been resolved by the law.

 

What it really boils down to is how precious life is to each and every one of us, and what, we as citizens, are willing to stand up, embrace an issue, and have a voice in. Between 25 and 30 people die every day of the week, that’s more than 10,500 people. Terrorists from foreign countries are you kidding, what is more a threat them those people is us…..against us.

HAVE A NICE DAY!